09.18.2007 | School is Definitely Back in Session
It wasn’t until recently that I remembered back in high school where the general concensus was that junior year was, by far, the most difficult. Turns out, the same applies for college, too.
I’m not taking as many courses as I normally do and I’ve even made a conscious effort to cut back on my extracurriculars, but for some reason, the work is just piling up like never before! Granted, this semester, unlike past semesters, I’m taking more “read and discuss” classes than lectures or project-based courses, but still…I really didn’t see this coming!
After dropping a course because I knew it would be too much to juggle this semester, I’m left with 4:
INFO415 - Environmental Interventions
INFO440 - Advanced Human-Computer Interaction Design
INFO515 - Culture, Law, and Politics of the Internet
MATH231 - Linear Algebra.
Doesn’t seem too bad, right? Well, aside from the fact that 3/4 of my classes are 400-level or above, all we ever do is READ! I still haven’t figured out a system that allows me to do ALL of my readings for a given class every single week. It’s just not possible unless I decided to convert to being a hermit or something! I don’t spend my weekends partying. So where is all of the time going? Or the better question is - where is all of this work coming from?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m actually enjoying some of the classes some of the time. They’re not ALL bad. It could just be sleep deprivation setting in or the cold weather combined with a cold that everyone on campus seems to have (thanks Phil…argh), but I’m just not a happy camper right now.
On the positive side of things, everything outside of class has been absolutely spectacular. I really love my apartment and our giant TV. I’m enjoying spending time with my friends and my clubs. TAing Intro to Web Design is a challenge, but a good one. Photo for the Sun has been great - I’ll be promoted to Senior Photographer by the end of the week. And I’ve managed to keep in touch with a lot of people I met over the summer at the same time. The career fair last week proved to be more fruitful than I had anticipated and I landed an interview the next day for a Program Manager position at a tech company. We’ll see how that goes.
So now I’m off to 415. I just finished my bibliography for a paper we have due the first week in October. Then the ISSA meeting and home promptly thereafter to commence my post-Monday/Tuesday insanity nap. It’s the highlight of my week.
Until next time…
Sep 18th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Junior year does sound like the hardest year. I’ve heard some horror stories from Juniors in A.E.P. and I think the classes I’m taking now as a Sophomore are really tough. Taking fewer classes than usual is a good idea, that’s what I’m doing too. Good luck.